although master of many languages; and in consequence of this choice his work remained in MS. for many years.  When it came to light, those who were ignorant of the MS. materials of ancient Irish history, were pleased to suppose that he had invented a considerable portion, and supplied the remainder from the viva voce traditions of the country people.  Unfortunately, he was not sufficiently master of the science of criticism to give the authorities which he had used so carefully, and to prove their value and authenticity.  But truth has at length triumphed.  Several of the works from which he has quoted have been discovered; and it has been shown that, wild as some of his legends may read in the garb in which he has given them, there is proof that important facts underlie the structure, though it has been somewhat overembellished by a redundant fancy.

[Illustration:  TUBRID CHURCHYARD—­BURIAL-PLACE OF THE HISTORIAN KEATING.]

Keating was also a poet.  Many of his pieces are still well known and highly popular in Munster, and copies of nearly all of them are preserved by the Royal Irish Academy.  One of his ballads has been “coaxed” into verse by D’Arcy M’Gee, in his Gallery of Irish Writers.  It is entitled “Thoughts on Innisfail.”  I shall give one verse as a specimen, and as an illustration of the popular feelings of the time: 

    “And the mighty of Naas are mighty no more,
    Like the thunders that boomed ’mid the banners of yore;
    And the wrath-ripened fields, ’twas they who could reap them;
    Till they trusted the forsworn, no foe could defeat them.”

[Illustration:  INSCRIPTION IN HONOUR OF KEATING.]

The poet-priest must have died at an advanced age, though the precise date of his demise has not been ascertained.  He has also left some religious works; and his “Shaft of Death” is well known and much admired both by divines and Celtic scholars.[517]

O’Sullivan Beare’s history is too well known to require more than a passing mention.  It was said that he wrote as fiercely as he fought.  Archbishop Usher, with whom he had many a literary feud, appears to have been of this opinion; for, after having described O’Sullivan as an “egregious liar,” he was so sensitive to any counter abuse he might receive in return, that he carefully cut out every disparaging epithet which the historian used from the copy of his reply, which at present lies, with Usher’s other works, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

The Four Masters are included amongst the Irish writers of this century, but I have already given ample details of their labours.  The Acta Sanctorum of Colgan, and Ward’s literary efforts in a foreign land for his country, are beyond all praise.  Usher and Ware were also amongst the giants of these days; and, considering the state of political and religious excitement amongst which they lived and wrote, it is incomparably marvellous that they should not